Loaded created the genre but, on the eve of the magazines tenth anniversary, sales have halved. Andrew Porter looks at life in an overcrowded market

It implores male travellers not to give up their seat to a woman as it might offend them. It is the sort of in-your-face wit that “lad culture” spawned. The attitude has always been that if women want feminism they cannot have old-fashioned deference as well.

The ad is for Loaded magazine and is part of a campaign to celebrate its birthday. Next month this bible of laddism will be 10 years old.

But will it be a birthday worth celebrating? Or will it be the first time that Loaded faces up to the fact that the world has changed and there is no longer the demand for the totty and caper-led fare that it serves up.

The figures tell a brutal story. At its height six years ago Loaded sold almost 500,000 copies a month; it now